why I won't sell you a cheap bike

As a part of my work existence, I work in a bike shop selling bikes.

I won't sell you a cheap bike.

I have been asked before for a bicycle which costs around $250-$300 dollars by customers, but I just cannot sell one. For one thing, we don't sell anything that inexpensive, and for another, a new bike in that price range is not worth owning. If that is all that is affordable by someone, I suggest a good used bike and will direct them where to go to get one.

But still, I get people insisting that spending more on a new bicycle is a waste of money and they refuse to pay more.

But such bikes exist I am told. Big Box Stores sell them!

Indeed, they do.

But...

You see, big box stores can sell bicycles in the lowest of price brackets by telling bicycle manufacturers that they want to sell their product, that they can move X number of units, and that the price needs to be X dollars with X mark up. Now, make the damn bike!

So, they do.

Frames are heavy, welds are substandard, and frame materials are extremely cheap. Components are no name and don't work. Wheels are machine built (ok in and of itself) and not tensioned properly (never ok) and therefore unsafe. Brakes are in general brakes in name only. Same thing for the gears. Overall, someone buying such a bicycle ends up with something which looks like a bicycle, but does not function like one should.

They end up with a lousy experience when riding it. It ends up sitting in the garage collecting dust because it is too inefficient and not enjoyable.

This is the very definition of a waste of money - buying something for a specific use and then not using it because the product does not meet your expectations.

I told someone that once.

They bought a real bike from me.


So, I won't sell someone a cheap bike, instead, I sell an experience. This is what our reps tell us to do, but perhaps not in the way that I do it.


You see ...

... your bike is free when you buy from me.


Think about that hard, your bike is free.


I have dropped that bombshell on people before and it raises more than just a few eyebrows.

Often, in our shop, we get people who are interested in using a bike as more than just a toy, or sporting equipment, or something for a twice a season 15 minute ride around the neighbourhood. If someone is interested in using a bicycle as more than that, then the bicycle is free.

Let me explain.

We, collectively, allocate a lot of money to moving ourselves around and use some of the most expensive forms of personal transportation devised by humanity to move individual people - our road ways and our cars. Assuming a middle of the road car and the average Canadian distance covered per year, each adult will likely spend between $450 000 to $500 000 driving over their course of their driving career on the cars, interest, insurance, and maintenance. This does not count subsidies for maintaining roads (comes out of the general tax revenue NOT fuel tax). And they won't even notice. They won't even notice. It is seen as a cost of living.

So don't do it. Drop out.

I am not advocating getting all Hippie here, and nor am I advocating no cars, but rather, I am advocating a shift in perspective which is, I think, needed in our current economic climate.

We are living in an era of high inflation on things which actually matter. Like food. Food prices are climbing and are likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Costs of most things in general are creeping up.

Hand in hand with that are fairly flat or stagnant wages. People are extolled to do more with less even though this is not physically possible for many people. Once discretionary income is absorbed by needed spending, that's it! Done!

Remember that if wage increases do not match inflation, there has been an effective wage cut as the dollars someone is paid will not buy what they did before.

At the same time, we are encouraged by clever advertisers and seasonal holiday guilt to spend spend spend! Advertisers are not stupid. They study human psychology and what makes us tick and push all of our buttons and, like lambs to the proverbial slaughter, we go along with it (usually without even noticing - do you really need that new cell phone? etc?) And we do go along with it, en masse. Look at the level of consumer debt in our economy.

So, change or sink.

Adapt or die.

Which brings me back to free bicycles and selling an experience.

I can demonstrate how to turn a $600 basic bicycle into an effective commuter designed for urban use by adding about $200-$300 in extras. The bicycle will be comfortable for trips up to 30km each way and will have room to efficiently carry all that is needed for the day.

I can demonstrate how to break into riding for transport easily, over a long period of time, so that covering distances becomes easy and not intimidating. It takes time to built the fitness and comfort level needed to ride all the time. It would be condescending in the extreme to look at someone in their mid 40s and laugh off their concerns with this. I can do it, but I have 36 years experience on bicycles, something that is a rarity in Canada.

I can demonstrate how to work with traffic and how to route plan so that traffic is not an issue.

I can demonstrate how to cycle so that you don't overheat and need a shower when you get to work.

I can demonstrate how to safely navigate a Canadian winter on two wheels.

I can demonstrate how much happier people who bicycle are and why (for example, I was told I was crazy by a co-worker once for riding in the winter - I told her that I am always smiling when I ride, that other winter cyclists I see are always smiling, that when I drive, all I see are miserable people, so who is the crazy one anyway? Made her think that did...)

I can demonstrate the improvements in health that you get from riding.

I can question the blind acceptance of environmental destruction, dollar cost of driving, and subsidizing personal automobiles as being just the way it is.

I can question the wisdom of multi-hour commutes per day in a car as being a good use of time.

I can question why we accept as being ok the high numbers of deaths on our roads caused by automobiles as being just a cost of our lifestyle we have to deal with. It was society blowing its cork in the Netherlands in the 1970s over exactly this issue which brought about the cycling infrastructure and cultural change needed to shift from a car crazy culture to a bike crazy one - and the Dutch were just as car nuts then as we are now. We are no where near that tipping point here. We still, for some reason, accept death by automobile as being ok. A shame, but ok. No change needed.

I can question why we choose to live in one city and work in the next (ironically, I do this - but, I am willing to do the ride and it is really not that far for me).

I can point out that if we accept the cost of cars as being a necessary expense - which we do culturally as a group - and if we are going to do our short trips by bicycle, that the bicycle comes out of the transportation budget NOT the fun budget and compared to the money we are already committed to spend, the bicycle costs are trivial. I point out to people that my first year as a bicycle commuter cost me nothing for the bicycle, bags, some extra clothing (layers vs a bulky coat), boots, and maintenance because it came out of the money I had already committed to spend on gasoline. In fact, I ended up ahead by about $1500 AFTER accounting for the startup costs of my bicycle rig. After that, it worked out to more than $2000 a year. More really if you consider that I can get away with buying half the number of cars over my working career because I am not wearing them out so quickly.



So, I sell an experience. But it has nothing to do with wind in the hair, hipster coffee shops, or mud between your teeth. It has everything to do with paying the mortgage off faster, travelling, and retiring well and with your health.

Plus, as a bonus, I get to be smug. And that is always fun.


*I have, in different conversations with different people, pointed out all of the above while selling bicycles. It works, and not just in the selling of the bicycle but in the use of them. I see a lot of my old customers out and about biking everywhere on the machines I sold them. They look happy. They sound happy as well when they return to the shop for bits and pieces.

(EDIT TO ADD: A few people on a Google+ forum I shared this article with made some observations I would like to quickly address. I am speaking here about the experience in the Canadian market which differs from that in other countries. Some pointed out options for inexpensive bicycles which are quite good for commuting which match the dollar number I mentioned above as being not worth it. Bicycle costs in Canada have seen a large jump in the last couple of years making life difficult for bicycle sellers and buyers alike.

One, our dollar, relative to the USA dollar, has lost about 25% of its value when oil crashed and other commodities took a hit. Two, bike companies had largely frozen bike prices for reasons known only to themselves for a couple of years and did their increases all at once. Three, the federal government slapped a 5% tax on bicycles. All of this hit all at once which results in things costing more here than in the USA in particular over and above the fact that things in general cost more in Canada than the USA for reasons which have nothing to do with the bicycle industry.

None of this, however, invalidates what I said about commuter bicycling being basically free when a person who has already committed to spending car like money - and, in fact, owns a car for that purpose - makes a partial switch to commuting by bicycle.)

at the lbs

So, I go into the local bike store (LBS) this morning with the bike with the fouled up brake on it and the guy behind the desk says, and I quote, "Uh oh, what did you do?"

I go through the story (see yesterday's post).

He invites me to take it down to the basement to the mechanic I know. We are old riding buddies, and have known each other for about 20 years.

He sees me coming and says, and I quote, "Oh no..."

____

It is nice to be so predictable.

I think.

____

As an aside, the SanDisk Extreme SDHC UHS-1 card is howling fast in my Fuji X-10. Much more so than the Lexar Platinum 2 card I was using before. I think it is approximately twice as fast. Write times are almost instantaneous.

frankenfenders two - a five minute fix

Before I get into describing how I built up the rear fender of my commuter mountain bike, I would like to complain about something. If you don't want to read that bit, skip to the pictures.

Ok, I admit it. I am a klutz.

No, really, I am.

I have a positive talent for messing up mechanical projects. I am not scared to try adjusting or making things, but more often than not, I mess things up. Some people can, when handed a device or machine, figure them out and seemingly like magic, make them work properly. I figure out how to foul them up beyond belief. My favourite mechanic at the LBS sees me coming and often greets me with a "What did you do this time?!?" and a look of fear and trepidation on his face. Sigh.

With that in mind, consider what happened tonight. I rejigged my rear fender to create more clearance for snow, and managed to mess up the rear brake caliper to the point where I think it may need replacing. While putting the rear wheel back on the bike after working on the rear fender, I nudged the tab on the dead brake pad (the non-moving one) with the brake disk and pushed the pad out of alignment. It was stuck inside the caliper. The only way I could see to get it out was to remove the back plate adjuster part of the caliper and reseat the brake pad. I have seen this done before and it works. But. You knew there had to be a but, didn't you. But, I forgot to clean the threads of the adjuster plate and it jammed. Seeing as I have been riding in the snow and salt and grit of winter this was predictable but I failed to clue into this until it was well and truly too late. I tried, very carefully, to remove it, but the wrench slipped and I stripped out the Allen key hole in the middle of the adjuster leaving it stuck in the wrong position. So now I have a rear brake which works, but is wildly out of adjustment. If the mechanic at my favourite LBS can get it out, and if that part is replaceable, I might be looking at a cheap fix. I suspect though that I am looking at a new rear caliper.

Grrrrr.

I had taken some pictures for tonight's blog entry on my Fuji X-10. This camera uses an SD card (I hate those things and much prefer CF cards - this was true even before tonight's story). I caught the edge of the card on the edge of the card reader and managed to foul up the plastic dividers between the broad flat pins on the card. I no longer trust the card, and should get a new one. It took nail clippers to trim off the plastic bits to get it into the reader so that I could retrieve the pictures.

Grrrrr again.

I am not touching anything breakable again tonight. Like chairs.

Anyway, on with the frankenfender.

The rear frankenfender on my bicycle is made up of three parts. The lowest part is a scrap of skinny mountain bike whip fender that I had left over from another bizarre fender build from a few years ago. It is not really needed except that I like to keep as much crud out of the front derailleur as possible. 

This is the top of the small fender bit I use as a shield to protect, at least somewhat, the front derailleur. It is mounted by a screw in the threaded hole in the cross brace between the chain stays.

This shows how the fender bit is attached to the frame. It also gives some idea of the (limited) protection the fender offers the front derailleur.

Next up is a standard cheap sks fender. It is one of those ones which clamps onto the seat tube with a cheap flexy "claw" (see the above picture) and mounts to the brace between the seat stays with a bolt and a bracket on the fender. What I did was remove the bracket entirely and use zip ties to mount the fender to the brace and bike rack.

Close up of the criss-crossed zip ties holding the fender in place. There is an indent in the fender which is lined up with the seat stay brace which gives almost 1cm more clearance between the fender and tire once the normal mounting bracket is removed.

Underside of the criss-crossed zip ties. This looks like it will catch some snow, and it will, but it won't catch much snow and the added clearance is worth it.

This zip tie keeps the fender from flopping all over the place. The thing is very securely mounted, and the fender is well protected, so the likelihood of the zip ties breaking is very low.

The final part of the frankenfender is a rear deflector shield which I use to both end off the fender and to make a deck on my rack.

As you can see, there is huge clearance here for the wheel. This part was unchanged in tonight's rejig of the fender. I can testify that it does a great job of keeping crud off of me. I am not sure about people behind me, but I don't get anything on my clothes. I had to trim it a bit as the length, while good for blocking wheel spray, was such that heavy bumps bounced it into the tire where it would jam and pick. To fix that, I trimmed off a chunk and refixed the trimmed bit with zip ties (I love zip ties) to the bike which ended up both stiffening and shortening the fender part.

Here is what the whole thing looks like "live" on the trail. This picture is the older version of the set up, but shows how it looks when all covered in snow. The only difference between this and the current version is the amount of clearance for the forward two bits of fender.

The snowy front part - it looks the same now but for the added clearance. This does show why the refit was needed though - powder snow like this is fine, but the wheel would almost jam up with continued riding through slush which freezes to ice on the bike.

The rear part of the fender. It is clear to see how I added the hacked off bit back to the bike, and how much clearance there is for snow. Buildup is a non issue for the rear of the fender.

And lastly, the whole thing with both frankenfenders in the snow.

That's it for tonight.

on making frankenfenders - a five minute fix

Usually, I end up putting frankenfenders on my bicycles when I decide to use a fender. You see, the problem I have is that often I am attempting to attach a fender to a bike that is not really made for fenders (or, at least, is not made for fenders and a rack at the same time - like my Kona Jake the Snake) or does not have enough room for proper fenders and studded tires (like my Kona Dew City).

Sometimes, though, the frankenfender job is needed because the fenders I picked do not do the job as well as I would like.

The front fender which currently sits on my commuter mountain bike is a good fender. It is wide enough to cover the full width of a Schwalbe Ice Spiker 2.1 tire and, when combined with the splash guard on the down tube, keeps most of the crud thrown up by the tire off of me. Only a tiny bit gets on my boots. I don't mind this as I deliberately opted for a fender that fits with huge space between the tire and fender so some slop is expected.

The problem I had with it was that the front of the fender did not stick out anywhere near far enough to deflect spray tossed forward by the tire. It was flying quite high in front of the bicycle, and I was riding into it.

So, I needed to extend the fender enough to prevent spray.

Here is what I came up with.

Side View showing the two bolts attaching an old scrap of fender to the one mounted on the bicycle. It is clear to see how big the studded tires are from this picture, as well as the generous amount of clearance I have allowed for snow etc to build up. On previous bikes, I have had so little wiggle room that the tires ended up rubbing on snow build up. This will not be an issue with this bicycle.

Detail of the underside of the fender showing a front view of the new fender bit. I used an old used bit of fender that I happened to have lying around the workroom left over from another frankenfender project. This is why I never throw out any scrap of plastic fender that I end up with. You just never know when it will be useful.

Angled view of the new fender attachment. A significant amount of length has been added to the front fender. I trimmed back the leading edges of the fender to make them less blunt and to make it look a bit less of a hack.

Many would not like the aesthetics of this five minute fix of the bicycle, which is something I understand.

I, however, like the Mad Max look for my commuter bicycles. They get left outside while I am shopping, out for coffee, getting groceries, and sometimes at work. I don't want a bicycle that costs a fortune to do this, and don't want a bike that looks flashy even if it is inexpensive. The kind of mods I do make the bike distinctive looking, and "mine", without adding to the desirability factor all that much.

Some would argue that removing the suspension fork and adding a rack and fenders forever removes the cool from the bike.

To that I say good.

Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333

Tire Test: Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333

Why bother with studded tires?

For me, the answer is very very simple. They hurt less. Two years ago, I started winter riding. I have been a cyclist in one form or another for over three decades, but have never really been that comfortable riding in the winter. This had nothing to do with falling, or traffic, but had everything to do with liking my bikes too much to expose them to winter's salt and other madness.

Two years ago I finally bought a cheap but still good to ride commuter bike which, since it was not a piece of sporting equipment, and was being used in place of my car, was more or less disposable.

The first winter I rode I did not use studs and had no problems at all. We had a cold winter, with a fair bit to a lot of snow for Southern Ontario. I ran all winter on worn out cyclocross tires which ended the winter being completely shot. I never fell once or even really came close. We had only one day with any real ice.

The second winter I rode, being last winter, was an anomaly. We had almost no snow. Temperatures rose and sank above and below freezing all winter long. Flowers budded in February and did not die out. While there was no snow, there were many mornings I woke up to roads and MUPs that had been "flash frozen." Ice was everywhere. Two crashes on my left side in six hours saw me to the shop for a set of studded tires.

I used a set of Schwalbe Marathon winter tires and loved them.

This year though, I needed new tires as I switched early this fall to a disk brake equipped mountain bike for my commuter instead of a rim braked hybrid. It was the best thing I could have done. My cheap, but effective, mtn bike is a lot more fun to ride.

Why the Ice Spikers?

It is simple really, the 26 inch Marathons I had ordered were on back order and the shop was running down on Ice Spiker stock so I bought a pair rather than be caught out with no winter tires.

Some basic stats

These are not light tires.  The Schwalbe web page lists them as being 995g each. That is not light, especially considering that this is all rotation weight. However, speeds are lower anyhow in the winter, so this is not as big a deal as you might think. I look at them as work out aids.

Each tire has 304 studs in them. That is a lot, and contributes significantly to the weight. Each stud is tungsten-carbide with a galvanized steel base. Schwalbe sells kits to "restud" the tires should any work their way out.

They also recommend riding at least 40km on them with gentle accelerations and brakings to seat the studs. I can report that the studs did seat very nicely after the initial run in period and do not look as likely to work their way out as the ones in the Marathons I used last winter did.

The size I am using is 26 x 2.1, which is fairly beefy. Thankfully, my bike has room for fenders and tires this big so there is no issue with fit. Some people (myself included) prefer a narrower tire in the winter as they sink deeply into the snow and bite better into the surface below. That said, I don't think these will be an issue size wise (more on this to follow).

Installation

They were very very easy to install. Some tires are a very tight fit, but I have found that every Schwalbe tire I have owned has been easy to install.

A word of caution. The studs are sharp. If you are not careful, you might get a minor scratch from them. Just a word to the wise :)

What do they look like?

Never without a camera, I naturally took a few pictures while out this morning playing in the snow so I could share with you a few images of the tires.

As you can see, the tread blocks are widely spaced, and most of them have a stud in the middle. The rubber compound is a winter tire compound similar to what automotive tires have which stays supple when cold. The tread pattern sheds snow very easily. They did not pack up or toss too much water or snow onto me or the bike which is nice.

Just a shot of the bike in some snow. We did not get a lot of snow last night, but it was enough to form some initial impressions of the tires.

Another picture of the tire mounted on the bike

Initial riding impressions

The first thing you will notice after mounting them and putting the wheels back on the bike is that they will scratch the daylights out of your floor. Consider yourself warned. My floor where the bikes go is painted concrete, so I am not too worried about it. A quick coat of paint will fix it for me. But if the floor was tile or wood, I would strongly suggest a rubber runner mat from door to storage unless you don't care about the flooring.

These tires are very very loud. I thought the Marathons I used last year were loud, but these are very loud. People notice and hear you coming.

This is a good thing...

The sound is like a cross between  the hum of standard aggressive mtn bike tires and a high pitched metallic clacking. Makes a lot of noise on asphalt, anyways.

On limestone chip MUPs, the sound is more muted, and on snow it vanishes.

These tires drag significantly. Due to the weight, and studs, my speed has dropped about four to five kmph for equivalent effort. This is not a surprise, but is worth noting. I am not bothered by this though as I don't generally want to go as fast on an icy MUP vs a dry one, so this is a non-issue. Seeing as these tires are so aggressive, I may end up finding some single track and running that on the commuter bike a bit to confirm my suspicions that they would be superb in such settings.

Handling on dry asphalt is squirmy until the studs seat. I noticed the bike seemed to hook up more after about 30km. Either that, or I just got used to them, which is entirely possible. But they are NOT as grippy on asphalt as a standard tire. But who would expect them to be?

On frozen slush though, they are marvelous. The front of the bike rarely wants to wander and take its own line when rolling over rutted frozen slush, and that is with the tire pressure at 60psi. For ice, and deep snow, it is suggested to lower the pressure. I usually lower it to about 30psi if the going gets bad. When it gets bad, once winter really starts, I will report back on how they do in such circumstances.

In snow, you might be forgiven if you asked, "What snow?" The bike went where pointed, no drama, no slipping, no sliding. It just went. I managed to find some spots with untouched 10cm snow depth over soggy wet grass and used that as a test bed (it was a running trail so I was not messing up anyone's lawn...). The bike hunkered down and plowed through the snow like it wasn't there.

Traction was about perfect.

Cornering takes more finesse though. I tend to not lean the bike as much as I would normally, and tend to exert more downwards force on the "outer" handlebar (left side when turning right) to keep things nice and tucked in. I can see the bike potentially skittering all over the place if I enter a corner a bit hot on asphalt. However, on snow, I can see them biting in and just turning. In that way, they are the opposite of a normal mtn bike tire.

I will add more to this post as the winter progresses.

Light and Motion Stella 300

Here it comes, one of my mini reviews.

Recently, I bought myself a new bike light, the Light and Motion Stella 300.

The box comes with the light with its built in mounting harness and cord, a battery, a bracket for the battery, a charger, a helmet mount, and a Light and Motion sticker.

Physically, the light is very small and is fashioned out of a single piece of machined aluminum with a glass lens. There are "heat sink" veins cut into the housing to dissipate heat. This is needed as the single super bright LED does throw off a bit of heat. If I cover the light with my cycling gloved hand to avoid blinding another trail user, my glove comes away warm. One nice thing though, the glass so far has not gotten very wet in the rain as water does not stick around very long on it.

The Stella 300 mounted on the handlebar.

The back half of the light, as you can see, houses the on/off/mode switch and is made of a very tough plastic. The switch is rubber, with an LED in it which glows green when the battery charge is good and blinks when it is starting to go. The light appears well sealed against the elements.

The power cable comes out of the back of the light and is not removable. It is also insanely long which has prompted my to coil it up and secure it with zip ties. If I was using it on my helmet, I would like it since the battery could easily slip into a jersey pocket with room to spare. It is long enough that when the light is mounted on the handlebars, the cord can reach the rear panniers.

Mounting the light to the bike is very easy. Simply set the light on the bar and hold it in position, and wrap the rubber strap around the bar and hook it to the provided tab on the underside of the plastic housing. It stretches, and the rubber holds it in position. I was initially concerned about the longevity of this mechanism, but a friend of mine who has been using the no longer made Stella 150 with the same mounting style for a couple of years reports no problems with his, despite being used in all weather and all temperatures. It is very tough. The battery mounts the same way - I attach it to the stem of the commuter bike, and the top tube of my cyclocross bike. The light swivels a little from side to side allowing for slight adjustments to compensate for handlebar curving. This is a nice touch. Once set up, the light does not move or jiggle around at all.

The Stella 300 mounted, turned on, with its nice new scratches.

As you can see from the above picture, the light does not take up a lot of handlebar room.

So how is it in use? 

In a word, it is excellent.

It is not without fault though, and there is something I feel needs to be mentioned before I go on. There is a fairly large blind spot where not much light reaches right in front of the wheel which takes some getting used to. This blind spot contributed to a nasty crash I had on the way to work about five weeks ago. The rest of the fault for the crash was all me - being tired, and a mental blank moment did not help me much.  Since then, I have used the light a lot and have found that blind spot (unlit area) to be much less of an issue now that I have adapted to it. It is caused by the light reflector in the light aiming the beam very far forward. Little to none lands directly in front of the bike. All of my previous lights did, and I did not twig to this fast enough and landed hard when I missed seeing an obstacle. The real piss off, besides cracking my knee a good solid whack with a curb and the bike handlebar, was that the light got all scratched up. And this was the first time I had used it!!!

A design flaw or simply a different design? I am thinking a different design compared to what I was used to. In other words, once accounted for, this is a non issue for commuter use. That said, be aware that it is there. Now that I am aware of it, I have not been caught out by this again.

The switch is a bit stiff as well and I find I need to grip the light to switch intensities of the beam in order to  prevent the aiming of the light from being knocked out of line. I don't mind this though as other switch designs might not be as water tight.

The light has a "race" function which is very handy. Normally, to turn on the light, just press the button. The light cycles through the following settings: 300, 150, 75, (lumens all) and a bright blinky. However, if you turn on the light by holding the button for just over one second, you get the lowest and highest settings with the rest missing. Very handy for MUP usage. Press and hold the switch for two seconds to turn it off.

Burn times are very good for a light this bright. The company promises 2.75 hours at 300, 5.5 hours at 150, and 11 hours at 75lum and 100 hours on flash. I see no reason to doubt this as I have noticed run times similar to these figures. The battery takes about five hours to charge and is a lithium ion two cell unit which does not weigh much. I cannot feel the weight when the whole unit is mounted to the handlebars.

What does the light output look like?

Well, like this:

light from the Stella 300 at 300lum

I did not mess with this picture in LR4 or Photoshop. This is right out of the camera.

The light this unit throws is good enough for commuting. As you can see, objects in the distance are easy to see, and people will certainly see you coming. Reflective stuff light stop signs, killer suicide gates over trails with reflective tape on them, etc are visible up to three or four blocks away. Side views of buses and EMS vehicles are kind of hilarious actually.

I find that it is most effective when there is no other light around, but even when there are other interfering light sources, other trail users - including ipod zombies dressed in black and bike ninjas with no light or reflectors - are easy to see. People are easily able to tell when they are being over taken which helps reduce startle. This is a nice feature.

I had one pedestrian comment about how bright it was. I agreed. She did appreciate it though when I mentioned how much easier it made it for me to see her and other people and slow down in time to avoid near misses which are all too common when people cannot see each other well.

Thus far, I have not over ridden the light, but I could imagine it would be easy to do if I unwound the bike a bit. At normal commuting speeds with lots of ambient light, or on rail trails with no other light, it is very effective at speeds up to around 30kmph.

I would not use it off road on single track as an only light source. I would use a very bright multi LED unit (two "wide angle" LEDs and two distant ones with at least four times the output would be nice) with the Stella 300 on the helmet for directional use.

So far, I have not used it on the helmet. I may run it that way for a bit with my "look at me!!!" blinky on the bars and see how it goes.

That's it for now. If I have more observations I will add them at a later time in another post.

miracle mile

Imagine my great delight to discover this:

The pathway home - paralleling the local expressway and bypassing a particularly nasty piece of commuter roadway.

Thank you to the local farmer who allows the Trans Canada Trail to dip onto his (her?) lane for a few hundred meters.

I was sitting at the lunch table at work the other morning talking about my ride into town from the city. Currently, part of my work assignment sees me in a small town about 1km from the edge of Waterloo. I noted that the road into town, while nice and short and straight with no real hills on it, was not so friendly for a bicycle in rush hour.

Do you not know about the trail? One of my co-workers asked.

No...

But, now I do. This is it. A short, straight piece of limestone trail which goes exactly where I want it to go and drops me in Waterloo by a MUP which takes me right to the subdivision I live in.

How wonderful is that?

I do know how wonderful this is.

St Jacobs Farmer's Market

Railway in the mist

I simply love cycling in the fog. Everything is muted. Everything is saturated. It is gorgeous. To me, it is almost as beautiful as cycling in heavy snow. But that is something special.

 However, the night offers its own charms.

Construction Crane